What's Hot: Good quality leather, extra protection for the display and extra pockets.

What's Not: Camera cutout leaves a corner of the iPhone 4S vulnerable, Home screen is easy to press accidentally under the cover.

You may not have heard of MapiCases, a fine leather case maker out of Turkey. They make collections of fine leather cases for phones iPhones, BlackBerry phones, Nokia and Samsung phones. In the iPhone 4S collection, you will find over a dozen cases in different designs, colors and leather configurations, all made from high quality leather. The Mapi Ainos Wallet case for the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S has some extra protection with a thick display cover and several slots for credit cards and more. The Ainos Wallet case comes in 4 color options including black, dark brown, tan and red.

Design

The MapiCases Ainos Wallet case for the iPhone 4S has a very protective design and reminds us a little bit of Piel Frama cases from Spain. But the Mapi case is thinner than most Piel Frama case. The Ainos has a jacket style design that includes a form fitting pocket for the iPhone 4S and a front cover that closes with magnetic closure and protects the screen while you are not using the phone. Both the exterior and interior of the Ainos Wallet case use genuine leather that looks to be good quality. The case has inserts for both back and front of the case, and the while the back of the case is rigid, the front cover has some extra soft padding on top of the rigid insert.

In addition to the iPhone 4S pocket, the Mapi Ainos Wallet case also has two credit card slots on the back. The design is quite clever, using a snap closure to keep the credit cards/business cards from fall out of the pockets and provides easy access when you need them. Inside of the front cover, the Ainos Wallet hides another pocket that you can use additional credit cards (about 2 can fit in there), or a couple of bills or business cards. The Ainos Wallet version doesn't come with a belt clip, but the regular Ainos case does come with a user-removable belt clip system.

Features

The MapiCases Ainos Wallet leather case has a top loading iPhone 4S pocket, and it's very easy to slide the phone in and out of the case. The interior of the case has smooth leather, and certainly won't scratch your iPhone 4S surface. The snap closure is easy to use as well and keeps the phone safe in the pocket. The pocket covers the back and most vertical sides of the iPhone 4/4S and has cutouts on the bottom and opens on top (except the snap tab) to give you access to all ports and buttons on the iPhone. The case has a cutout on the back to expose the camera and flash, but unfortunately the cutout doesn't have the insert material the protects the back of the phone, it's just a piece of thin leather on the corner which doesn't provide much structural support for the phone or that corner of the iPhone 4S as it does for the rest of the phone.

The phone pocket on the MapiCases Ainos Wallet case also covers front of the iPhone 4S except the screen and earpiece. This design does give the iPhone 4S more protection, though the leather surround the screen isn't very supple, causing accidental Home button press when the phone is in a tight pocket, like a jeans pocket. It would have been better if the case had a semi-circle cutout that left the Home button exposed. The case offers access to other buttons such as the power button, silence button and volume buttons, as well as audio out jack and the sync/charge port. You will likely not be able to use the phone with a docking station or an audio system as the back insert is rigid and holds a bit of space before the back cover and the sync/charge port.

Conclusion

The Mapi Ainos Wallet leather case for the iPhone 4S has a classic jacket case style with good quality leather. The case offers good protection for the back and front of the iPhone 4S with rigid inserts and extra padding for the display. It's a very easy-to-use case and has cutouts to all ports and buttons. We like the color options and the stitching on the case is good. Two small issues prevent the case to be perfect: the camera cutout has no frame insert to support the corner of the case, and the Home is too easy to press accidentally. As it's not easy to find good leather cases especially the one that has a front flip cover, the Mapi Ainos Wallet case is a good choice and the price isn't too high for a handmade case and it comes in a nice gift-box style case.